My favorite smoothie

I'm not what you would call a "smoothie person." I enjoy them, but I don't crave them. It's likely in part due to the fact that we don't own an awesome blender—just a food processor and an immersion blender. And so far, I haven't felt compelled to add yet another small appliance to our kitchen. But when I was sick with a nasty virus at the beginning of the year, things changed. I wanted fruits and greens without a lot of effort and I saw my friend Katie* post a smoothie recipe on her instagram. I gave smoothies another try, and lo and behold, they are pretty great. So, for the last several months, when the mood strikes (or a banana needs to be used ASAP, as was the case today) I now have a yummy, go-to recipe.

This smoothie is made with ingredients that I have on hand just about 100% of the time, but of course you can tailor it what you have. Side note: I've been equally pleased with the result when I use both fresh and frozen fruit.

My favorite smoothie

Makes 1 large serving

• 1 banana
• 5 strawberries, either fresh or frozen
• a handful of blueberries, frozen
• a handful of spinach
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 1 T chia seeds (I like the texture they add)
• 3 ice cubes

Add all ingredients to blender, food processor, etc. and pulse until smooth. The final product will be somewhere on the color spectrum of purple to green, depending on how generous your berry incorporation is. Enjoy! I love to drink mine out of a big jar.

*PS—I stayed up super late reading posts on Katie's blog and it made me so excited about cooking! But also, she writes about her faith and thoughts on life and her posts are so good. Definitely worth a read.